New Routine

This past week has been a little weird for me. I have gone back to working 6am to 2pm. Yes, that means that I am up thirty minutes sooner during my work days than I was the week before and I am getting off an hour sooner than I was but that little bit of a chance has me all kinds of strange.

On top of this new shift, I have a new product at work. It’s been a little bit of a rough launch but a guest who called me today, who also works for a big name company in customer support, helped ease my mind. He told me that he was amazed at how smooth our product had launched given how many moving parts it has. He helped me see our successes rather than focusing on what was going wrong. I thanked him because I think he ended up helping me more than I was able to help him today.

About a year ago, if you had asked me if I would ever work 6am shifts again, I would have said, “Hello no!” That was before my whole life got flipped upside down. Now, I have help getting up in the morning from Dexter. He knows when I am supposed to get up and knocks my phone out of my hands to keep me from looking at it in bed. Not only that, he starts playing with me which puts me in a good mood from the moment I get out of bed and out the door.

I have made things easier on myself by making sure I have a weeks worth of lunches ready to go in the fridge and showering the night before. This give me more time to get ready in the morning, take care of Dexter’s needs, and give myself time to settle in at the office before my shift starts. I have actually been taking to eating breakfast at the office and getting my cup of coffee there. I used to do that when I used to work 6am before and it works pretty well. I find that I need that little boost of relaxation in the morning.

I haven’t had a lot of time to work on my NaNoWriMo project the last week but I recently picked up a new Bullet Journal to help me organize my thoughts and manage my personal time. I am a list maker and having an organized way of checking off my “To-Do” list is helpful in managing myself. I know that getting off at 2pm is going to be good for getting writing done. I am actual doing this blog post to help get my writing mojo going again.

The nice thing about getting off at 2pm is coming home with lot of daylight to spare. I have been taking Dexter for a walk or taking to him to the dog park in the Mission as soon as I get home. It helps keep me from getting too settled before my fatigue of the work day settles in on me. It’s been great for him too, he’s a lot happier when he’s active. Dogs, like humans, need physical exercise to help keep them happy. I am just thankful I figured that out after my former partner left us. I say he us because we were a team at one time. My former partner was helpful in training Dexter the last couple years, he gave me some good advise on caring for him. I am pretty sure that my former partner misses Dexter more than he ever missed me (if he even missed me at all). I get it, Dexter is pretty much the best dog in the world (not biased at all!).

I have a few more things that I would like to work into my daily routine like going the gym, playing music, and reading. For now, I will just focus on getting to bed and waking up on time, taking Dexter for daily walks, and getting some writing in. Once those are settled into habit, I will add the others. I am not perfect by any means but I know that I can manage my time better than I have been. This is a start for me and so far so good!